With the coming soon of the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock concerts in upstate NY, it is really starting to stir up many memories for me.

Almost every summer of my life, I lived in the upstate town of Bethel, NY, which is where Yasgur’s Farm, and the Woodstock festival of 1969 was held. I was 16 when it happened, and I went back and forth to the site many times, since we were only about 1 mile away. It was a true disaster area that has certainly mellowed with memories, because believe me, when it was rally happening, it was NOT so pleasant and idyllic as so many people make it out to be!

Still, it was cool, and I must’ve had 40 campers all staying on our front lawn, with my Mom providing food for them, and I recall that some of them traveled from as far away as Texas by car! I could literally tell who was playing just by listening to the sound drift over the lake to my front porch, and can clearly recall hearing when Hendrix was on, which was the absolute end of the festival!

The following year, as a celebration of the first anniversary, my band, Steel, got a flatbed, a sound system, a tape recorder, and set up at the site, where some 40,000 folks had also assembled to remember the first anniversary of the Woodstock festival. I always joke that those must’ve been the only folks who actually remembered where they really were that previous summer of ’69!

Well, it really was something, and my band must’ve performed for nearly 8 hours, as we were the only music there. I recently was able to be given the tape of that concert, and you can imagine the poor condition it’s in! But who knows…with today’s digital technology, we may just be able to bring that tape, and all the fabulous memories back to life, so we can again share them with the world!